As 2013 gets underway and families tighten their belts to budget for the year ahead, new research has revealed that nearly half (47%) of UK mums sacrifice their ‘me time’ treats and regularly decide to spend money on their family rather than on themselves. 
However, while mums are happy to cut back on alcohol so they can spend more on their children, we are shocked to learn one of the things mums won’t give up for their kids is cigarettes! This habit comes in fifth of those must-haves mums have decided they can’t do without…
The poll, conducted by Ffrees Family Finance, the ‘save as you spend’ company, questioned the nation’s mums on who makes spending sacrifices for the family. Over a quarter of mums agreed that the whole family spends responsibly, all forgoing luxuries or ‘extras’ when needed and that both they and their partner choose to spend on their children rather than themselves.
However, in the battle of the parents, one in ten mums feel that they are the only person in the family to make spending sacrifices and one in seven believe that their partner does not sacrifice as much as they do to contribute to the family savings.
Over a quarter (29%) of kind-hearted mums would feel guilty if they spent money on themselves that could have gone instead towards buying the kids or the family a treat and 24% of mums could not remember the last time they splashed out on something for themselves.
Furthermore, a fifth only pamper themselves during the sales, with a whopping 92% of mums spending 50 pounds sterling or less on themselves each month, and the majority only allowing themselves to spend 11-20 pounds sterling.
Top 5 ‘me-time’ treats that mums would be prepared to sacrifice for the family finances:
1. Alcohol and Nights/Eating Out
2. Hairdressers
3. Beauty treatments
4. Clothes/shoes
5. Chocolate
Over one in ten mums said that they would give up or have already given up all of their ‘me-time’ treats and a fifth of mums said there’s nothing they would refuse to go without.
Conversely, there are some items that even selfless mums can’t give up. The top 5 items include:
1. Make-up/beauty products
2. Good quality food – including chocolate!
3. Hairdressers
4. Coffee/tea
5. Cigarettes
Alex Letts, CEO of Ffrees.co.uk, commented: “With the first set of post-Christmas credit card bills due to land on doormats around the UK next week, it seems that it is the mums in the family who are sacrificing their small luxuries for the sake of their families.
“The Ffrees mission is to help hard-working, cash squeezed families save for their future and get a better deal. Ffrees gives them an average 6% back on their family spending and lets them save up for their ‘me time’ treats and have enough left over to treat the family too!”
Ffrees Family Finance is an innovative free scheme in which participating retailers and service providers automatically return a percentage of the money families spend to a savings fund in the form of Ffrees credits, where each credit earned equates to 1 pound sterling.*
